New day of mobilization of health personnel (caregivers, emergency physicians, specialized educators). Montauban, Tarbes, Toulouse. Several demonstrations were planned for May 31 to protest against the closure of emergencies and the lack of means.
They are about sixty in front of the CPAM of Montauban. Nurses, caregivers, educators, medico-psychological help… They work in EHPADs, hospitals. Staff who support those in need, such as adults and children with disabilities, people with severe mental disorders or women who are victims of violence.
If they demonstrate, it is because they can no longer bear the lack of means, that they are exhausted after two years of COVID. That they are tired of always asking for more resources. In vain.
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This nurse – who wishes to remain anonymous – from the extra-hospital psychiatry service in Montauban explains: “Today in psychiatry, we no longer have doctors to function, we no longer find nurses either. Patients who live outside Montauban will for some have to travel several tens of kilometers to be taken care of. We are clearly heading towards an abandonment of care for these patients. There is a crying deficit of caregivers, we are helpless in the face of this situation.”
Sébastien also wanted to express his displeasure. He is a specialized educator in Moissac. “The work has become complicated, because there is a lack of doctors. We can no longer provide medico-social follow-up for the population we support on a daily basis. This mainly affects children, 0 – 6 years old, who may have pathologies that are not taken care of. The host families are destitute because they are not trained, and we do not have the necessary structures to provide them with treatment. There is a real work overload.”
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The fire is also smoldering in the emergency services of the region. Christelle is an emergency nurse in Montauban. “There has been a problem for a long time in the Montauban emergency room. We need financial and human resources, which we don’t have. It has become so complicated that more and more staff are quitting. He’s worn out. And those who remain are in real pain. The number of emergency visits has doubled, but not the number of caregivers. We have an insufficient supply of care.”
In the Hautes-Pyrénées, the tension is palpable in the emergency services. This Tuesday, May 31, a demonstration bringing together a hundred people took place in front of the hospital center from Lourdes. This was to oppose the “project to abolish emergency night duty digestive surgery, at night and on weekends”. The demonstrators also oppose the administrative merger of the hospitals of Lourdes and Tarbes, scheduled for January 2023.
Staff shortages are a national trend, as this map illustrates.
This afternoon, another demonstration took place in front of the Prefecture of the region in Toulouse, bringing together several hundred people. At the call of several unions, health personnel (nurses, caregivers, specialized educators) demonstrated to denounce their poor working conditions. But also to question the Ségur de la Santé bonuses, which do not concern non-graduates. What they experience as an injustice.
Health workers do not want to stop there. A great day of action is scheduled for June 7 to denounce the degradation of care services (including emergencies, but not only…) in the Hautes-Pyrenees. This department has already been affected by the closure emergencies of the clinic of Ormeau and the hospital of Bagnères-de-Bigorre at night. For Wilfried Zapparoli, the departmental secretary CGT health of the Hautes-Pyrénées, the observation is clear: “After two years of the pandemic, no lesson has been learned. The beds are closing, for lack of staff. Many quit or are sick. All the small emergency services in the region are in danger and threatened with closure.
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